Category Archives: News
The End
In 2010, I had the idea that I wanted to push myself to be a more active yoyo player. Back when I first started playing, and all through my days working for Duncan Toys and then briefly as a tour demonstrator for YoYoFactory, I threw constantly. It was not at all uncommon for me to put in at least 5 – 6 hours a day, and if I was on tour or handling a trade show then it easily became 8 – 10 hours a day. But having kids and starting a business take a lot out of you, and in 2010 I was coming off several years of barely touching a yoyo at all. I needed something to kickstart my creativity, and nothing does that like a public declaration so I announced that I was going to start 365yoyotricks.com, a website where I created, filmed, and uploaded one yoyo trick every single day for a year.
It turned out to be a lot harder than I thought, but in 2011 I did it. One original trick, every day. I dipped into a well of older tricks for days when whatever I was working on wasn’t ready yet, but I published video of 364 original yoyo tricks in 2011. (Halloween was a treat instead of a trick, with a coupon code for YoYoExpert.) In 2012 I decided to bring in some people who I personally wanted to see more play from, and put together a roster of players that are some of my personal favorites: David Ung, Nate Sutter, Ed Haponik, Drew Tetz, and Guy Wright. They contributed about a trick a week each, and I filled in the gaps. For 2013 I did the same thing with a new roster of players: Jacob Jensen, Spencer Berry, Darnell Hairston, Jake Bullock, and Rafael Matsunaga. As always, there were plenty of guest spots, but the formula remained; one new, original yoyo trick every day.
I even started a spin-off site, 365cooltricks.com, that is run by my friend Mark Hayward, featuring all kinds of tricks…juggling, kendama, magic, sleight of hand, bar tricks, and other object manipulation. It’s awesome, by the way, and Mark Hayward now has a much stronger understand of what I’ve done for the past 3 years in keeping 365yoyotricks.com going. Ha. Hi, Mark!
Today is the last trick of 365yoyotricks.com, “Denouement” by Hank Freeman.
[vimeo id=”83039825″ width=”600″ height=”350″]
My time is filled with fatherhood and husbandhood and running YoYoNews.com and organizing contests and generally doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work to better the yoyo industry and community. So in the interest of making sure that I put all my energy in the best places possible, I’m closing the doors on 365yoyotricks.com. The site will remain up indefinitely, and thanks to the tireless work of Greg Pettit it’s a LOT more searchable than it was before so it’s now a much more functional archive of amazing tricks from a lot of fantastic yoyo players. (And me. Ha.)
A huge thanks to André Boulay and YoYoExpert.com for his help in keeping 365 going, helping me move the site from Tumblr to WordPress, and sponsoring the project with kickbacks for the players. Much love to everyone who ever contributed a trick, to everyone who ever watched a trick, and to everyone who slapped one of our stickers somewhere inappropriate. A huge thank you to Tressley Cahill for designing the logos for both 365yoyotricks.com and 365cooltricks.com.
It’s been a great three year run! The theoretical successor to 365 is the #trickcircle series that Drew Tetz has been curating from Instagram clips…so follow that hashtag on Instagram, and keep an eye on YoYoNews.com for weekly roundups and discussion.
Happy New Year, and thanks so much for supporting this project! It really did wonders for me as a player, and I hope you got as much inspiration from it as I did.
– Steve
Jacob Jensen Joins 365yoyotricks.com!
365yoyotricks.com is incredibly pleased to announce a late addition to the 2013 season of 365yoyotricks….Werrd Alliance member Jacob Jensen!
Jacob’s constant exploration of risky, timing-sensitive counterweight tricks is a huge inspiration to aspiring counterweight players, and we’re really excited to see what he contributes to the roster. Jacob will be taking over the Thursday trick slot.
Jacob is sponsored by Werrd yoyos and G-String.
Fireside Chat – Steve Brown, Mark Hayward, & more!
Shameless self-promotion!
I’ll be performing in two shows tomorrow night in Pittsburgh, PA with my friends Mark Hayward and Jonathan Burns in their new variety talk show, Fireside Chat!
Friday May 17th, 8pm & 10pm
Arcade Comedy Theater, 811 Liberty Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15222
Special Guests: Comedian Tom Musial, National YoYo Master Steve Brown, DJ Daniel Crushwell
$10 at the door, or click here to buy advance tickets.
Please spread the word, and bring your friends. See you there!
Here’s a video to give you an idea what the show is like:
365CoolTricks.com
I’m launching another site soon, called 365cooltricks.com. The goal is similar to what I’m doing with 365yoyotricks.com, but opening it up to juggling, kendama, spin top, and cool tricks with household objects. Most tricks will be performed by myself, Mark Hayward, and Jonathan Burns, with kendama tricks by Jake Wiens (The Kengarden) and juggling by Jay Gilligan.
Unlike 365yoyotricks.com, we’re going to be taking submissions for Cool Tricks…if you’ve got something cool, drop me a line!
In the meantime, be sure to follow 365CoolTricks on Twitter and Facebook for more info and to be the first to know when we start posting videos!
Spencer Berry at 2012 Finnish National YoYo Contest
Ladies and gentleman, Spencer Berry has enough knees and elbows for everyone!
New Website for 365yoyotricks.com!
Hey everyone! Check out the new site for 365yoyotricks.com! Huge thanks to André Boulay from YoYoExpert.com for hosting and helping set up the new WordPress site.
All of the original posts have been imported, going all the way back to the first season in 2011. I’m slowly but surely getting everything re-labeled, but in the meantime all of the tags are intact and the search feature works GREAT. I’ll be relabeling all of my tricks from 2011 by play style, as well as adding tags so that it’s easier to find specific types of tricks by searching for suicide, fixed axle, stalls, etc.
It’s going to take me a while to get two years worth of tricks labeled properly, but please keep checking back for your daily trick and feel free to root through the archives, comment on old tricks with additional trick info if you have any, and just generally enjoy the fact that you can actually search the archives a lot easier now. 🙂
Also, expect to see more posts from this year’s roster of players about their plans and events they’ll be attending…everyone has a login and has been given free-reign to pop in and run their mouths about whatever they’re doing.
Welcome to the new 365yoyotricks.com…thanks for all your support!
– Steve
Inspirado!
This is the best visual representation of what is happening in my head every time I make up a yo-yo trick. – Steve
(Courtesy upintherear)